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Daley Blind, a player highly rated for his football intelligence by his peers, can play left-back but he was singled out and exploited by Middlesbrough boss Aitor Karanka, who set Adama Traore on him with success.

Matteo Darmian is a right-back and is not as comfortable on the left. Rojo can also play left-back, but is better as a central defender.

United could do worse than bringing Patrice Evra back in the January transfer window. The Frenchman – the best thing on the internet thanks to his Instagram account on which he dances and sings, most notably while dressed as a giant panda – has a serious addiction problem.

But given that addiction is called ‘Manchester United Football Club’, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem if he were to return to M16. He would be the first long-serving player to go back since Paul Scholes.

Evra left United with mixed feelings in 2014 for personal reasons. He half regrets that.

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He doesn’t regret playing for an outstanding Juventus team which has won two league titles and is favourite for a third – one which reached the 2015 Champions League final.

He also kept his place in the France team. Juve fans have been good to him, the club too, but he’d still walk over the Alps to play for United, stopping only in Paris for his favourite kebab in Chatelet.

Evra, who gets on very well with Mourinho, is contracted at Juventus until July 2018 and still plays in every Champions League game.

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He respects Juve deeply, but this is a man who offered to give out his allocation of players’ tickets for France's European Championship matches… on the condition that the people using them were match-going Manchester United fans.

What would he bring? Character, experience and passion in a dressing room that lost too much under Louis van Gaal.

He could help Luke Shaw, a player in transition who didn’t want him to go – though Shaw may not see the situation like that.

The man who wants to be a coach can help Paul Pogba, who adores him and calls him Uncle Pat.

The other person who calls him that is Antoine Griezmann, who, thinking forward, is not a bad lad to have looking up to you.

If the best football team have the best team spirit, then Evra would be like injecting a New Year shot of happiness and positivity.

Evra is 35. Too old, eh? Like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Michael Carrick, two of the best players this season, are too old?

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Would you like to see Patrice Evra return?

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Nobody is saying that he’s going to play left-back for the next five years. Well, apart from Evra, who is convinced that he can play for as long as Billy Meredith, who appeared for United until he was 47, before joining City.

United fans love him too.

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Some held up a flag featuring his face and ‘Three is a magic number’ at the Sunderland home game. A snap poll on United We Stand’s fanzine website asked fans if they’d like Evra back – 82% said yes, against 9% who said no and another 9% who weren’t sure.

Fans don’t choose the team and it’s for Mourinho to decide the balance in his side, but the decision will be made by United's officials who will meet again to talk transfers now the January window is open.

United’s next league game is against Liverpool on January 15. Imagine Patrice Evra being announced as the new signing then!